Telecommunications relay service allows a sound impaired person, i.e., a heating or speech impaired individual, to employ a data-type terminal for engaging in a communication session over a telephone network with a sound unimpaired person who does not have a matching terminal but instead has a telephone station set for use in voice based communication. Telecommunications relay service is well known and was formerly called dual party relay (DPR) service. Such service is currently provided by having a live attendant, i.e., a communications assistant, dedicated to each relay session. The live attendant a) reads over the telephone to the unimpaired person text messages that are transmitted to the attendant by the sound impaired person using the data-type terminal and b) transcribes and transmits to the sound impaired person the text of that which he hears being spoken by the unimpaired person. The terminal employed may be a unit such as: a) a personal computer, b) a data terminal or c) a text telephone, which was formerly known as a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD).
It has been recognized in the an that one of the functions performed by the live attendant can presently be automated; namely, that text-to-speech systems can be employed to speak to the unimpaired person the text messages that are input by the sound impaired person. Therefore, the functions performed by such a live attendant are reduced and, correspondingly, the time required to perform the attendant's job is reduced. In fact, such systems can detect a code word used to indicate the end of a text message and only summon the live attendant upon such detection.
As a result, telecommunications relay service systems will shortly be deployed in which a live attendant may be shared over several such relay sessions. If there is more than one live attendant they may be grouped in a pool from which each may be assigned, on an as needed basis, to perform transcription for any relay session that is in progress and for which an automated text-to-speech conversion has just completed. Such attendants may be assigned in a fashion similar to that employed to assign transcribers disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,430,726 issued on Feb. 7, 1984 to L. R. Kasday, which is incorporated herein by reference.
It is recognized that a delay may result between the completion of the automated text-to-speech conversion and the assignment of a live shared attendant for transcribing and transmitting that which the unimpaired person says. Such a delay is known as the reconnect delay. While waiting for the assignment of the live shared attendant the relay session is held in a queue of relay sessions similarly waiting.
The existence of the reconnect delay requires the unimpaired person to wait before he speaks after completion of the text-to-speech conversion, until he is certain that one of the shared attendants is assigned to his relay session. If the unimpaired person does not wait until one of the shared attendants is assigned to his relay session, part of what he says will not be heard by the attendant ultimately assigned and might, consequently, be lost. Because the unimpaired person typically wishes to begin speaking as soon as the text-to-speech conversion is completed, which is the natural impulse of persons involved in conversations, such a delay is undesirable. In fact, such a delay can cause a) consternation to the unimpaired person or b) loss of that which the unimpaired person said, should he forget the existence of such a delay and begin speaking immediately upon completion of the text-to-speech conversion.